


A life story: Step by Step

by Altamiya



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, Happy Birthday Pidge!, Life retrospective, Pet death (mention)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 13:04:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10537023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altamiya/pseuds/Altamiya
Summary: "When Pidge was born, her eyes were opened. She let out a small cry when air rushed in her lungs for the first time. She observed, with wide eyes, everything around her. She was in her mother's arms, safe, and the first words she ever heard were :"Welcome in the world, little Katie"."A retrospective of Pidge's life, at different ages. A bird eye's view on everything, from the very beginning to the present.





	

**Author's Note:**

> First voltron fic, and first fic in English (unbeta'd). So apologies for all the grammatical mistakes or the typos, it's not my first language.
> 
> I had this idea in my head for...quite some time now, and wanted to do a little something for Pidge's birthday, becasue this character is totally awesome. I tried to stay in the canon as much as possible. It's a weird little something, but I'm publishing it any way because I spent time on it, and maybe someone will find it as interesting to read as I did while writing it!
> 
> Don't hesitate to leave comments and suggestions :) Good reading :)

When Pidge was born, her eyes were opened. She let out a small cry when air rushed in her lungs for the first time. She observed, with wide eyes, everything around her. She was in her mother's arms, safe, and the first words she ever heard were :"Welcome in the world, little Katie".

  
  


When she was 10 months old, she was hungrily listening to and watching her brother. She felt distressed when she couldn't see him around her. She tried to walk, without success, and ended up developing a technique of very fast crawling. Nothing was safe after that.  She discovered her world through her eyes, her stubby little fingers, and of course her mouth. Her appetite for discovery had no end.

  
  


When she was two years old, she was babbling, using all the words she gathered to try and communicate. Of course she wasn't really forming correct sentences, but she had quite a vast vocabulary for a toddler. She loved stealing her brother's glasses, laughing so much to see the world around her all blurred and deformed. She also learned how to call the family's dog, using it as a support while she was walking around on wobbly legs. She finally could reach higher and discover a whole lot of new things. She earned the nickname Pigeon at the time, as she was always walking had held high, bobbing it as she walked, just like a bird.

  
  


When she was three years old, she discovered school. It was a mixed experience at best. On one hand, she loved learning and trying to do what the teacher asked of her. She was really industrious in her cuttings and drawings. She remembered all the names, even the complicated ones.

But on the other hand, she was bored, because other pupils were just asking stupid questions or were working too slowly. And because you had to wait for all the class to finish before moving on the next activity, she spent a lot of time gazing outside through the window, even climbing on her desk to reach a good viewpoint. Her parents were often called by the school but she did not understand why. Why did it matter if she was looking outside the window when she was already finished with the task at hand? She heard a lot of things like "attention deficit disorder" and "special schools" but she did not see what was wrong with her current school. Each time, her mother seemed really distressed and her father angry, but each time they also assured her it was not her fault. And really how could it be? If it was not the others' fault they were slow, how could it be her fault if she was faster?

Thankfully, she was able to play with her brother Matt after school, as he was enthusiastically telling her about his school. He did so much interesting things! She did not know why she couldn't just go the her older brother's school. "Later" said her father, while he was reading her a story about a space explorer. "All thing in due time, Pigeon."

  
  


When she was five, she was already reading, trying to get her hands on all the books she could. It just was never enough. She did not go to play outside anymore. She got rashes after playing in the grass, and the sun shone too bright, giving her a headache. She ended up gazing outside the windows like before, seeing the world outside, but preferring to stay inside. It was easier this way. She had enough new worlds opened by reading without needing this one. She also changed schools. She had learned all she could from her old one, so she skipped classes. At least that's how she understood things. She and Matt were still joined at the hips, never too far from each other. The family dog was getting older. It was not playing with them in the same way anymore. It spend more time in his bed, laying in the last rays of the sun. Her mother seemed to spend more time with the animal. Nobody would tell her why.

  
  


When she was seven, her dog died. It was as if the world was ending. She cried all night. Her father tried to tell her her pet was in a happier place, but that just made her more miserable. She took it personally. If it died, it was because it didn't want to say with her anymore. All the reassurances in the world couldn't change that. She swore that she would never let anything happen to the ones she loved anymore. A promise made deep down in a seven year old girl's heart that would always remember how distressed she was when she lost her Rover.

  
  


When she was ten, her family tried to organize a great birthday's party, inviting all of her friends to come at home. She felt bad when she had to say there wasn't a lot of people to invite. She was the weirdo in her class, too young to be with them, too absorbed in her books and her studies, not really seeing the point in making friends you were going to lose any way. She had already skipped another class since getting in her new school.

And so the family switched plans. They would all go on a vacation, a road trip to Florida. They were going to see the old space base of Cape Canaveral, and maybe the Space museum. Everybody in the family knew Pidge was staying up late to gaze at the night sky. She was the kind of child to have dozens of stars stuck on their ceiling and on the walls. But hers were organized to recreate real constellations, as she had firmly demanded it. They all got in the car together, at the crack of dawn, two days before her actual birthday. They wanted to come home before then because they already had organized a surprise. Even her brother, who could not keep a secret to save his life, didn't tell her what it was.

And so they all got in the old car, ready to sing along on tunes and play games to pass the time. Her father also talked a little bit about his work at the Galaxy Garrison. Matt said he was going to enroll there, as he wanted to be the first to discover alien life.

"Let some things for your old father", laughed Sam Holt watching his children in the rear-view mirror.

"You'll be able to come with me and Katie", answered Matt easily. "If there is a discount when you bring a senior....officer of course."

"I"ll turn the car around young man!"

The whole family laughed, care free. The whole trip was an enchantment. It was incredible to see all those historical places, the base where the first missions launched from the United States, to see all the moon rocks they brought back with them and all those relics from the First Space Run. It made space feel...closer somehow. The museum also had some activities in zero G. It was the funniest thing Pidge had done in years, jumping around on her brother's back, just because they could. She felt right at home in the space ships replica, cozy even in the smaller places. It was as if it was made just for her.

"I want to go to the Galaxy Garrison too" she said in a tired voice during the return trip.

"You're too young, Katie. But soon. And you'll be amazing. You are going to do great things."

Her father's voice lulled her to sleep. She woke up when they got back home, for her true birthday party. The cake was enormous, full of chocolate and cream. It was delicious. The gifts were even better. She got her own first computer, a small laptop. She was amazed. Of course she already spent some time on the family's computer but this time it was hers, she could do whatever she wanted on it. It was like the windows she used to gaze from, but this window was opened on the whole world. Her fingers twitched in anticipation. The second gift was even more of a surprise. Someone rang on the door. Her mother stood up, and got a bow full of holes from the stranger. She thanked him, and went back inside. She put the box on the table. It moved by itself.

"Open it" She encouraged her daughter.

Pidge had just the time to get rid of the box's lid before a ball of fur jumped outside, barking. She cried tears of joy as she was hugging her new puppy. That night, she fell asleep, looking at the stars on her ceiling, her dog in her arms. Life was great.

  
  


When she was eleven, Matt left for the Garrison. She tried and pretended like it didn't hurt to be left alone. She spent more and more time on her computer, except during Matt's permissions, when she was always huddled on his room's floor, listening to his stories. The Garrison seemed to be everything she wanted and more. He let her try his (too big for her) uniform. The orange clashed terribly with her hair color but she couldn't stop smiling.

"Hope you got them ready for me, bro."

"How can I do that? Nobody's ever truly ready for you, Katie."

During this year, she learned how to code and hack. It became a game to see all the places on the web she wasn't supposed to go to. It dulled the loneliness to feel connected to something greater. Even if she felt a little bit alone, and a teeny bit jealous of her brother, life was still good.

  
  


When she was twelve, she learned about the Kerberos mission and that her father and her brother would both be aboard this exploration in deep space.

"I don't know how you guys do it, I would be so scared of doing something...wrong...."

"Well, Katie" answered her father wisely, "if you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great."

"Dad, you're always saying this!"

"Because it's true! Both of you need to hear it and truly believe it. You have potential, and the whole world is gonna be amazed by the Holt siblings!"

This was also the year she met Takashi Shirogane, the man who was supposed to be the pilot of the mission. He was young, maybe too young for such responsibilities. But then she remembered her brother was also part of this 3-man crew. The Garrison knew what it was doing.

Shiro, as he insisted she called him, came several times at home to have dinner and go over the plans for the mission. Katie felt both delighted to have him and see how the mission was going to go, but she also felt excluded as she wasn't going to space with the two men of her family. She didn't let herself get jealous. She was happy for them. She would have her own chance later on.

  
  


They had a family dinner the day before the launch. Her mother had prepared some peas, like her father requested. She didn't really understand why he would take _that_ as his last meal on Earth, but whatever.

"Oh, I wish I was going up with you guys." she sighed.

"Just you wait kiddo", answered her father. "Something tells me that you're going to have your own crew someday. You're going to fly with them to worlds so far away, we can't even imagine. I bet my bottom dollar you're going to be part of something that makes the whole universe sit up and notice."

She smiled happily at that. She was going to join them one day, and space will be theirs. Just you wait, universe!

  
  


When she was thirteen, her whole world shattered. The Kerberos mission was lost, craft and crew. She learned it by the television. She never got stabbed, but she thought it couldn't hurt as bad. The pain couldn't get worse.

Except it did when she saw her mother cry. And it became even worse when they had to go through the official military funeral ceremony. She felt numb. She stopped eating. Something was wrong with the version the Garrison gave them. Shiro couldn't have made such a rookie mistake. So she began to dig for the truth, breaking into the Garrison to check in the confidential files. She found the mission record: no crash appeared. The crew just stopped transmitting after an outside expedition. She couldn't know more because she was thrown out by Iverson's interruption.

If she couldn't go back and find the truth as Katie, she would do it as Pidge Gunderson. It was a stupid name, but nobody asked any questions. She cut her hair and wore the ugly orange uniform. She wanted to cry when she saw herself in the mirror. It wasn't supposed to go like that. She met Hunk and Lance, and she smiled again. At least, Pidge did.

Some months later, she began to hear this word "Voltron". She had no idea what it meant.

  
  


When she was fourteen, she finally understood. Her world came crashing down again, with the alien pod from which Shiro emerged. She found herself stuck on the other side of a wormhole with....could it be called a team?

Then she had to pilot the Green Lion, still searching for her missing family and finding nothing. But after the fight with Sendak, she began to accept the fact that maybe she found another family in her crew. They had a mission: saving the universe from Zarkon. Easy enough right?

  
  


She was fifteen when they thought they defeated Zarkon. But the price was high. Shiro was gone. She pretended it didn't hurt as bas as when she lost her blood family.

  
  


Lotor retook the Galra empire's armies as his own before her sixteenth birthday. But she was not going to celebrate it anyway. The universe needed her and her crew. The universe was going to take notice. _Happy birthday, Katie_ she thought, getting into her lion for the day's mission. She gave a thumbs up to her teammates on their video connection. She had found her place. She sometimes wished the road to it was different, but she couldn't imagine being anywhere else. Was she happy? Sometimes. But more importantly, she felt...Complete. And soon enough she would get back her family and her friend. Just you wait!

 


End file.
